Michael Gove bolsters Toby Young’s urge to be an MP

The talk of last night’s Spectator party in Birmingham was that the magazine’s associate editor, Toby Young, is preparing to throw his hat into the ring as a prospective Tory candidate.

At the end of the party an admiring clique of stripy-shirted delegates hung onto Education Secretary Michael Gove’s every word as he delivered a witty encomium to Young, praising to the skies his West London Free School which he founded last year — “there’s nothing wrong with it” — and remarking on Young’s Prince Hal-like transformation from hedonistic entertainment hack, hugely popular with readers, to doing something to help poor children and thereby becoming one of the biggest hate figures in the media.

There was some ego-boosting chat about the future of the Conservative leadership after 2015 — “Boris or Gove?” asked someone.

“It’s got to be Boris,” replied Gove, then he co-opted Young into his fantasy — “by that stage you’ll be Earl Hammersmith … Baron of Shepherd’s Bush … Lord Acton, proving power does not corrupt” — to much laughter.

“I’ve been approached by almost every Conservative Association in the country inviting me to run,” Young tells me. “It’s very flattering, but I think Boris mania is hard enough for the party to handle without adding Toby mania to the mix.”

* In no hurry to get to his leader’s speech this morning was Ken Clarke, recently demoted to Minister without Portfolio. As delegates queued at 10.15am, Clarke sat down for a late breakfast of sausage, bacon, mushrooms and the Financial Times.

The cheques are still in the post for The Lady’s scribes

FOLLOWING my revelation that long-serving writers for The Lady have been waiting for up to nine months to be paid, news reaches me from Covent Garden HQ. Impersonal letters have gone out from publisher Ben Budworth, each addressed to “Dear Contributor”, containing no apologies and only half-hearted reassurances.

“I am aware that The Lady has been taking longer to pay its valued contributors than I would like,” Budworth writes. His excuse: four years of poor trading figures, with annual losses of £500,000, £1 million and a “very welcome” profit of £5,000 last year. Of course, were profits the basis of paying contributors, nobody on Fleet Street would have been paid for decades.

As for those considering the wisdom of working for such a reluctant payer, the publisher’s expectations will give little comfort: “It is my belief that you will notice significant improvements by the end of the year.”

Poets’ hour turns to genius of Auden

Actors Dominic West and Felicity Kendal, pictured, read from WH Auden’s poems at the Arts Theatre last night for Josephine Hart Poetry Week. Hart was dedicated to matching great poems with skilled actors at her poetry hour events. “The passion she used to bring to

the events was incredible,” said Kendal. “It’s wonderful that Maurice [Saatchi] is keeping it going.” Lord Saatchi, Hart’s husband, paid tribute to director Michael Grandage. “Michael has done a great job carrying on these events,” he said.

Playwright and director Sir David Hare hosted the evening and Sir Bob Geldof was among those in the audience. “To just be quiet and take in the poetry is a wonderful thing,” said Geldof.

“I loved the evening.”

Litterbugs have a use after all

The Blain Southern gallery opened its new outpost in Hanover Square last night with an exhibition by sculptors Tim Noble and Sue Webster. Among the guests were Mary McCartney, PJ Harvey and artists Rachel Whiteread and Dinos Chapman. The works in the show, entitled Nihilistic Optimistic, are made of rubbish found around their studio in Shoreditch. These are back-lit to make shadow portraits.

Webster told how she and Noble were helped by the public. “When we did a show at the British Museum, people would leave bits of rubbish as presents. Someone left a crisp packet containing someone’s ashes.” That was snapped up by Charles Saatchi.

* Mark Humphrey, the sculptor whose Carrara marble staircase was unveiled at the St James Theatre in Westminster last month, opened a new show at the Osborne Samuel in Bruton Street last night.“I love Carrara marble,” said Lord Archer. “I have the same marble at my house in Mallorca. Now I’m off to the Albert Hall to meet my wife. I go to the theatre three or four times a week.” Busy.

* Crime writer Peter James is thrilled to discover his newly published paperback Not Dead Yet has knocked the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy off the top of the UK paperback bestseller list. “I am absolutely over the moon to have beaten the 50 shades trilogy - and without using any bondage at all,” said James, whose best-selling novels feature a Brighton detective, Roy Grace. “This is truly one of the greatest moments of my writing career. Move over Christian Grey, and make way for 50 shades of Grace.

Stella beats sneers at her £2.5m home sale

Stella McCartney has been struggling to sell her Notting Hill home. Instead of attracting hordes of buyers, photos of the house where she lived before she got married have attracted a swarm of online property trolls, who have been sneering at the simplicity of her white-walled and wooden-floored interiors.

To find a buyer, the fashion designer was forced to lower her asking price by £400,000 from £2.9 million to £2.5 million. This won’t come as too big a blow — McCartney’s company, acclaimed for its design of Team GB’s Olympic kit, has just announced record profits of £3.34 million.

It seems McCartney has had the last laugh as the house is now under offer. She will still make a staggering return on the three-bedroom house — she bought it for a mere £695,000 in 1998.

The designer famously fought a lengthy battle with her neighbours after controversially building an open-air shower on the roof of her home. It seems not everyone longs to see a naked celebrity.

* Rap star Tinie Tempah promised he won’t lose touch with the “street”, when he picked up an award from music licensing body Broadcast Music Inc (BMI) at the Dorchester last night for Written In the Stars. “I recorded the song in Greenwich as a 23-year-old from south London. It’s amazing how far that song has travelled,” he told me. “They even played it at the Super Bowl.”

Tories are facing the music

It was rock stars a go-go at the Conservative party conference yesterday as Queen guitarist Brian May, and singers Jamelia and Charlotte Church, took their turns to be gawped at in the lobby of the Hyatt hotel in Birmingham. May, there to campaign against culling badgers, said he was a “conference virgin”. Church was attending a Hacked Off event while Jamelia was there because she is a Birmingham girl supporting her manager, Jonathan Shalit, who held a reception for the music industry last night. Could she become a Tory pin-up girl? “I’m party neutral,” she said, resisting all overtures.